FIRST RESULTS OF PACTE’S RESEARCH ON THE AQUISITION OF TRANSLATION COMPETENCE:

THE ACQUISITION OF DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE OF TRANSLATION

Group PACTE

A. Beeby, L. Castillo, O. Fox, A.Galán, A. Hurtado Albir, A. Kuznik, G. Massana, W. Neunzig, Ch. Olalla, P. Rodríguez Inés, L. Romero, M. Taffarel, S. WimmerPrincipal researcher: A. Hurtado AlbirSpeakers: A. Beeby, A. Hurtado Albir

RESEARCH METHODS IN TRANSLATION

AND INTERPRETING PROCESSES

Gran Canaria, 21st – 22nd January 2013

Introduction and Research Objectives

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

OVERALL OBJECTIVEAcquisition of Translation Competence

PHASES1st Translation Competence (TC)2nd Acquisition of Translation Competence (ATC)

RESEARCHEmpirical-experimentalProcess and product

6 LANGUAGE COMBINATIONS

STUDIES CARRIED OUT

– TC Exploratory Studies (June 2000 – January 2001)– TC Pilot Test (February – April 2004)– TC Experiment (October 2005 – March 2006)

– ATC Pilot Test (June 2011)– ATC Experiment (November 2011)

Translation Competence Research: Definitions and Theoretical Model

TC DEFINITIONS AND THEORETICAL MODEL

TRANSLATION COMPETENCEThe underlying system of knowledge required to translate

Expert knowledgePredominantly proceduralComprising different inter-related subcompetences Important strategic component

BILINGUAL EXTRALINGUISTIC

KNOWLEDGE OF TRANSLATIONINSTRUMENTAL

PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL COMPONENTS

STRATEGIC

TC MODEL (PACTE 2003)

TC Research design

TC RESEARCH DESIGN

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Degree of expertise in translation

DEPENDENT VARIABLESKnowledge of translationEfficacy of the processDecision-makingTranslation projectProblem-solvingUse of instrumental resources

20 INDICATORS

TC RESEARCH DESIGN

EXPERIMENTAL UNIVERSE

Professionals working with foreign languages

SAMPLE

Professional translators (35)

Teachers of foreign languages (24)

TC RESEARCH DESIGN

INSTRUMENTS

Proxy and Camtasia >

Direct observation of subjects

Texts and translations

Questionnaires and interview

Knowledge of Translation Questionnaire

TC RESULTS

Results from the TC Experiment have been published (PACTE 2008, 2009, 2011a, 2011b & in progress).Our written document refers to a couple of results related to the purpose of this presentation:1. Acceptability Results for Translators (0.73) and

Teachers (0.49) in the Direct Translation Task. P.6 table 2

2. Some methodological results that validate the experimental design. P. 7: tables 7 & 8

Acquisition of Translation Competence Research:

Definitions and Theoretical Model

ATC MODEL (PACTE 2003)

HYPOTHESES

GENERAL HYPOTHESIS

Translation competence is acquired as a result of a process of development and restructuring of different sub-competences.

HYPOTHESES

1. Translation competence comprises several inter-related sub-competences.

2. The development of the strategic, instrumental, and knowledge about translation sub-competences is of particular importance.

3. Not all sub-competences develop in parallel, i.e. at the same time and at the same rate.

4. Learning-to-learn strategies must also be acquired.5. The acquisition of translation competence is dependent upon

directionality (direct/inverse translation), language pairs in use, the field of specialized translation (legal, literary translation, etc.) and the learning environment.

VARIABLES

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Experience in translation (six categories):• Novices• Second year students• Third year students• Fourth year students• Recent graduates• Professional translators (From the TC Experiment)

VARIABLES

DEPENDENT VARIABLES (as in the TC experiment)

Knowledge of translationEfficacy of the processDecision-makingTranslation projectProblem-solvingUse of instrumental resources

SIMULATION OF A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

LONGITUDINAL STUDY WITH REPEATED MEASUREMENTS?Repeated measurements taken from one sample of students over 5 years

• Technical problems5 years needed to collect the dataParallel instruments needed for each measurement (texts, questionnaires, etc.)

• Difficulties associated with the control of extraneous variables

SIMULATION OF A LONGITUDINAL STUDYMeasurements from samples of first-year, second-year, third-year and final-year students

• AdvantagesData collected in one yearValidated instruments available from the TC experiment

SIMULATION OF A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

THE ATC UNIVERSE AND SAMPLE

SAMPLE130 students from different years in the FTI/UAB Degree in Translation and Interpreting6 language combinations (as in the TC experiment)

SAMPLE SELECTIONInitial questionnaire to act as filter Of those students that passed the filter, 5 groups of 30 were randomly selected from each year

CONTROL GROUPThe 35 professional translators from the TC experiment

TASKS AND INSTRUMENTS

EXPERIMENTAL TASKS (as in the TC experiment)

Completion of a questionnaire on knowledge about translation Direct translation (B-A) + Completion of a questionnaire on the translation problems encounteredInverse translation (A-B) + Completion of a questionnaire on the translation problems encountered

TASKS AND INSTRUMENTSINSTRUMENTS VALIDATED IN THE TC EXPERIMENT

Observation instrumentsSoftware: Camtasia

QuestionnairesTranslation Problems Questionnaire (revised) Knowledge of Translation Questionnaire

TextsRich PointsCriteria for acceptable, semi-acceptable and unacceptable solutions

Corpus softwareWordSmith Tools

NEW INSTRUMENTS FOR THE ATC EXPERIMENTQuestionnaires

Selection QuestionnairePersonal Information Questionnaire

Declarative Knowledge of Translation

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT TRANSLATION VARIABLE

Subjects’ knowledge of the principles of translation

Indicators:Dynamic indexCoherence coefficient

Instrument:Questionnaire on Knowledge about Translation

Categories:Dynamic: textual, communicative and functionalist concept of translationStatic: linguistic and literal concept of translation

Knowledge of translation questionnaire

Long process of development and validation (See Neunzig & Kuznik 2007; PACTE 2008 & in progress)

– Pilot Test (35 UAB/FTI Students)

– In the CT Pilot Test (3 Translators & 3 Teachers)

– Validation Test (10 Translation users)

→ Final Questionnaire (27 Items)

Dynamic questions Static questions1st Pair

FUNCTION OF BRIEF AND TARGET

AUDIENCE

Item 3 The client conditions the way the translator translates.

Item 24 When you translate a text, you should not be influenced by the target reader.

2nd PairMETHODS REQUIRED

Item 10 A text should be translated in different ways depending on who the target reader is.

Item 4The aim of every translation is to produce a text as close in form to the source text as possible.

3rd PairMETHODS REQUIRED

Item 23 If you begin to translate a text using certain criteria (e.g. respecting the format of the original text, adapting the text to target readers, etc.) these should be kept to throughout the text.

Item 11All translated texts should maintain the order of the sentences and the paragraphs of the source text.

4th PairMETHODS REQUIRED

Item 14When translating a technical text, complicated vocabulary is not the main problem.

Item 5Most translation problems can be solved with the help of good dictionaries.

5th PairMETHODS REQUIRED

Item 27If there is a word in a text that you don’t understand, first of all you try to work out its meaning from the context

1 Item 6As soon as you find a word or expression you don’t know the meaning of, you should look it up in a bilingual dictionary

Questionnaire Items Analyzed

RESULTS: TC DYNAMIC INDEX

Dynamic Index (-1/+1)

Mean

All Translators 0.273

Best Translators 0.36

Language Teachers 0.088

Translation Users -0.200

RESULTS: TC COHERENCE COEFFICIENT

COHERENCE COEFFICIENT(0/1)

Mean

All Translators 0.37

Best Translators 0.50

Language Teachers 0.27

Translation Users 0.05

ATC Knowledge of Translation

DYNAMIC INDEX RESULTS:

ATC Mean(-1/+1)

1st Year 0.10

2nd Year 0.33

3rd Year 0.37

4th Year 0.36

Graduates 0.41

DYNAMIC INDEX RESULTS:Comparing ATC and TC

ATC Mean(-1/+1)

1st Year 0.10

2nd Year 0.33

3rd Year 0.37

4th Year 0.36

Graduates 0.41

Mean(-1/+1)

TC0.27 Translators

0.09 Teachers

- 0.20 Users

0.36 BestTranslators

COHERENCE COEFFICIENT RESULTS:

ATC Mean(0/1)

1st Year 0.16

2nd Year 0.42

3rd Year 0.42

4th Year 0.39

Graduates 0.41

COHERENCE COEFFICIENT RESULTS:Comparing ATC and TC

ATC Mean(0/1)

1st Year 0.16

2nd Year 0.42

3rd Year 0.42

4th Year 0.39

Graduates 0.41

Mean TC(0/1)

0.37 Translators

0.27 Teachers

0.05 Users

0.50 BestTranslators

FURTHER LINES OF INQUIRY

• Dynamic Index & Coherence Coefficient

– Based on 5 pairs of opposing items from the 27 items in the Questionnaire

• All 5 items show change from 1st to 2nd Years• INVESTIGATE OTHER ITEMS

– Based on Likert scale of 4 • I strongly disagree/I disagree/ I agree/I strongly

agree• CONVERT TO BINARY OPTION (NO/YES)

FURTHER RESULTS IITEMS WHERE NOTHINGVERY INTERESTING HAPPENS

Item 19 (Dynamic)

When you translate you should be aware of the characteristic norms of the text that you have to produce in the TT language

NO YES

1st Year 100%

2nd Year 96%

3rd Year 10% 89%

4th Year 3% 96%

Graduates 18% 81%

Translators 97%

FURTHER RESULTS IITEMS WHERE NOTHINGVERY INTERESTING HAPPENS

Item 8 (Dynamic) If the characteristics of the source text are very different in the target culture (e.g. instruction manuals, commercial letters, etc.) you should adapt the translation.

NO YES

1st Year 8% 91%

2nd Year 4% 96%

3rd Year 7% 92%

4th Year 16% 83%

Graduates 100%

Translators 2% 97%

FURTHER RESULTS IIITEMS THAT INDICATEGROWING DYNAMISM

Item 12 (Static)

The main difficulty when translating lies in the idiomatic expressions of a language.

NO YES

1st Year 100%

2nd Year 20% 80%

3rd Year 14% 85%

4th Year 36% 63%

Graduates 27% 68%

Translators 57% 42%

FURTHER RESULTS IIITEMS THAT INDICATEGROWING DYNAMISM

Item 10 (Dynamic)

A text should be translated in different ways depending on who the target reader is.

NO YES

1st Year 37% 62%

2nd Year 4% 96%

3rd Year 7% 92%

4th Year 16% 83%

Graduates 18% 81%

Translators 20% 80%

FURTHER RESULTS IIIITEMS THAT REFLECT FORMAL TRANING AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Item 10 (Static)

As no one can know all the words, the best aid to translate well is a bilingual dictionary.

NO YES

1st Year 4% 95%

2nd Year 36% 64%

3rd Year 50% 50%

4th Year 66% 33%

Graduates 86% 9%

Translators 51% 48%

FURTHER RESULTS IIIITEMS THAT REFLECT FORMAL TRANING AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Item 16 (Static)As soon as you find a word or expression you don’t know the meaning of, you should look it up straightaway in a bilingual dictionary

NO YES

1st Year 29% 70%

2nd Year 68% 28%

3rd Year 82% 17%

4th Year 80% 16%

Graduates 68% 31%

Translators 54% 45%

CONCLUSIONS

TC Experiment Results:

• A dynamic concept of translation is a characteristic of TC (PACTE 2011a & in progress)

– This conclusion was reached using the Knowledge about Translation Questionnaire

• A dynamic concept of and approach to translation is a characteristic of TC (PACTE 2011a & in progress)

– This conclusion was reached by calculating the Dynamic Translation Index: Knowledge about Translation (declarative) + Translation Project (procedural)

• There is a correlation between the Dynamic Translation Index andAcceptability

– This conclusion was reached by triangulating the Dynamic Translation Index + Acceptability

This finding validates other theoretical models: Nida 1964; Seleskovitch 1968, Seleskovitch and Lederer 1984; Reiss and Vermeer 1984, Nord 1991; Hatim and Mason 1990, etc.

IN OTHER WORDS

The Dynamic Translation Index

=Knowledge about Translation

(declarative knowledge)+

Translation Project (procedural knowledge)

Triangulating the Dynamic Translation Index + Acceptability showed:

A dynamic concept of translation↕

A dynamic approach to the translation of a specific text

↕A dynamic approach to

translation problems posed in the text↕

The acceptability of the solutions found to these problems

CONCLUSIONS

ATC EXPERIMENT RESULTS: • The progression from a static to a dynamic concept

of translation is a characteristic of the ATC

QUESTIONS: • When and How do students integrate declarative and procedural

knowledge and develop a dynamic approach to translating a specific text and to finding acceptable solutions to translation problems?

NEXT STEPS:• Analyze the Translation Project variable (procedural knowledge) needed for

the ATC Dynamic Translation Index• Analyze the Acceptability Indicator• Triangulate data to see if there is correlation between the two